


Oh, so you two know each other?

by odinstark



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Developing Relationship, Drunken Flirting, Falling In Love, Forehead Kisses, Friends With Benefits, Hook-Up, Hugs, Hypothermia, Injury, M/M, Minor NSFW content, Relationship Reveal, Reunions, Secret Relationship, Sharing Body Heat, Sharing Clothes, Sharing a Bed, Sharing a Room, Spooning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-10-29
Packaged: 2021-01-08 02:28:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21228281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/odinstark/pseuds/odinstark
Summary: His best friends? Together? Merlin didn't know how he didn't see it coming. It had already happened with the other set.





	Oh, so you two know each other?

They weren't friends. Well, not at least at first. It was late and they were drunk as hell and the stable was empty and out of the way. Lancelot was sure when the other traveller had come onto him so heavily in the tavern, when all he wanted to do was drink himself to sleep, was because he had exhausted all his other options but still was vying for the chance to put another notch in his belt. And well...he may have succumbed to whatever charms the drunk man spun on him.

He left before he had to have the awkward night after talk.

But then Gwaine came stumbling into his life again, when bandits poured from the trees around as he travelled down the road, a half a mile or so away from the nearest town. Lancelot didn't even hear the approaching horse as his sword clanged against sword and plunged into flesh.

But a swoosh of long brown hair later and his companion came into view, battling two armed bandits and winning. When the final body hit the dust, Lancelot finally let his eyes meet the other man's. Surely he didn't recognise him from the dark, hazy night a moon ago?

"Oh, hello there, Stranger. Fancy seeing you again," the man grinned and raised his eyebrows suggestively. Ah, so he did, it seemed.

Lancelot scoffed and wiped the blood from his sword on one of the bandits shirts. He looked up again and sheathed his sword, watching as Gwaine's eyes followed his every move.

"I should thank you," Lancelot scowled at the shit eating grin Gwaine put on, "For helping me. Here. Not for whatever sordid thought you have in your head right now."

Gwaine gasped dramatically and put a hand on his heart,

"Well, I never! I'm sad you think so little of me, Lance. I thought our night together was nothing less of romantic."

"Uh-huh. And don't call me that," he grumbled as he picked up the dagger beside his foot.

Gwaine eyes the blade carefully, 

"Whatever you say, _Lancelot_."

With Camelot at his back, and nowhere nowhere clear in his near future, he was a little stumped. Of course his confusion brought about Gwaine, it always did. Between the bandits and Lancelot leaving for Camelot, the two had become closer. They still weren't friends but they weren't a one night stand either.

It was many nights stand. 

Lancelot took another drink of his mead, quenching his thirst and hopefully cooling down his warm cheeks as the man in question flounced in the door, his necklace glimmering in the light. He picked up a drink from a barmaid he seemed very friendly with before his eyes landed on Lancelot, sulking away in a corner.

He quickly made his way over, flopping into the chair opposite the downtrodden man. He gave Lancelot's expression a once over and raised a single eyebrow.

"What happened with you? You look like you've been run out of a town by an angry father," Gwaine jested, gesturing his flagon at his companion's chest.

"Try a king," Lancelot replied monotonously, taking another gulp of his drink.

Gwaine laughed for a second before he realised he wasn't joking,

"Wait, you're serious? I need to hear how the Noble and Chivalrous Lancelot got run out of a kingdom."

That night, Gwaine's hair fanned out around his head as he lay face up on Lancelot's bare chest, the bedsheets pulled up to their waists. Lancelot's fingers brushed absentmindedly along Gwaine's bicep as they fell quiet in the darkness.

"What did it feel like?" he asked softly, like he wasn't sure if he wanted Lancelot to hear.

"Did what?"

Gwaine was silent for so long, he almost thought he had fallen asleep. 

"Being a Knight for those hours. How did it feel?"

Lancelot paused and closed his eyes, feeling the glow of Camelot's lights wash over him.

"Like I was destined to be."

"_Gwaine!_" Lancelot threw down his sword as soon as he had dispatched the final bandit and raced towards the frozen pond, the ice sheet cracked into shards.

Gwaine was struggling to get himself out of it, the cold seizing his muscles and joints. Lancelot yanked him as quickly as he could from the below zero waters.

Gwaine's teeth chattered as he lay on the dirt floor beside where Lancelot hurriedly stoked a fire into full flame. As soon as it did, Lancelot began ripping the drenched clothes from Gwaine's shivering body, before they had a chance to freeze stiff. 

"I-I'd never think I-I'd see the day where you were ripping my clothes from-from me! U-Usually it's the other way a-around," Gwaine chattered but let Lancelot redress him in warm clothes from his own pack, the shirt hanging a little too big as the shoulders.

"You never have your head out of the gutter, do you, my friend?" Lancelot finished tucking Gwaine's arms into his jacket and took his hands in between his own, hoping to warm them up from the frosty icicles they currently were.

"Only for fresh air," he replied and Lancelot let out a surprised huff of air he vaguely recognised as a laugh.

Lancelot stripped the bandits of their jackets and overshirts and left their bodies in a pile into the treeline of the clearing. He laid them out in a comfortable pile close to the fire and ushered Gwaine to lie down on them and after a moments hesitation, he slipped in behind him, one hand resting on the man's waist and another gently running itself through his knotted hair.

"What are you doing?" Gwaine sleepily mumbled, pressing his head back into Lancelot's shoulder.

"Keeping you warm."

Gwaine pressed back more, 

"I could think of another way to do that."

Lancelot let himself chuckle at that and pressed a kiss onto the back of Gwaine's head, 

"Maybe when you're not in danger of developing hypothermia."

Gwaine grumbled as Lancelot covered them with his riding cloak, soaking up as much warmth as possible,

"Never hurts to try."

"You know, I thought it was impossible at this point, but I've finally followed in your footsteps, Lance."

Lancelot huffed at the nickname and stood up, after kicking his sword under the bed,

"You've finally stopped bar fighting?"

Gwaine laughed, "No, that would-You've cut your hair!"

Lancelot brushed a hand through it on instinct as Gwaine grew closer, his finger tips brushing over the healing skin and his eyebrow before they tangled themselves in his short, dark brown locks. 

Lancelot's hands threaded themselves into Gwaine's belt so they didn't hang lamely at his side,

"Yes, now what happened?"

Gwaine grinned, tugging Lancelot's face down to mere millimetres from his own, their lips brushed as he spoke,

"No, I'm going to enjoy this clean cut version of you now. Kissing first, questions later."

Lancelot's fingers brushed against the bare skin until they found the edge of a bandage, wrapped securely around Gwaine's thigh. Gwaine opened his eyes as Lancelot pressed a kiss to his forehead,

"What was that for?"

"You were run out of Camelot too, weren't you?" Lancelot grinned as Gwaine tried to move away lamely, with no success as his legs were still tangled in Lancelot's.

"How'd you figure?"

Lancelot's palm returned to his thigh. 

"Recognised the handy work."

Gwaine puffed but his expression softened, 

"Merlin really is the gem you said he was."

"He's the best man I've ever met," Lancelot whispered, like it was a precious secret,

"What of Arthur? Did he make your impression of Nobles even worse?"

"Maybe they're not all so bad."

Lancelot looked up from the letter, and caught Percival's eyes. He really wished Gwaine was here right now, but the man was still on his pub crawl of South Mercia. They had separated two weeks earlier and were supposed to meet yesterday. Maybe they could find him on the way, but Merlin took priority, no matter how much it hurt to choose.

"Are you in, my friend?" Lancelot didn't even need a response to know his answer.

As the boulders crashed down into the valley, Lancelot only had a moment to check whether their friends were unharmed by the rockfall, but a familiar gleam of brown hair caught his eye.

When they met up a moment later, after he had greeted Arthur, introduced Percival and was about to hug Merlin, another figure rocketed into his chest. Lancelot clung to Gwaine as they rocked slowly from the movement. They departed after a moment when the silence got too loud around them.

Merlin was the first to speak after Gwaine let go of his clinging. 

"I'm guessing you two know each other then?" Percival smiled a little too knowingly and Gwaine shot him a subtle glare.

"Travelled together for a while," Lancelot offered.

"We were starting a club of drifters who've been exiled from Camelot, we were planning on how to get Percy here banned so he could be full initiated," Gwaine joked, and Arthur scoffed, accepting Gwaine's bullshit and didn't question them anymore.

Now really wasn't the time to get into it. 

He met him in a dark corner of the castle, only his small torch lighting the way. He managed to get it into a wall fastening before Lancelot jumped his bones.

"Where've you been?" he managed to get out between kisses.

Gwaine pulled away for a second, undoing the laces on Lancelot's shirt while raking his eyes up his body, 

"Let's just say it started with a fight, continued with some slave traders and then ended with a quest for some magical cup thing."

Lancelot grinned as he tucked Gwaine's hair behind his ears,

"So a normal few days with Merlin and Arthur?"

They laughed until different noises took their place. 

Training was long, patrol was long, even dinner was long. Morgana was still put there and Arthur made sure everyone knew it. And all Lancelot wanted to do was fall into bed and not wake up for a week. But when he got back and Gwaine was sitting on his bed, his eyes glimmering suggestively.

A moment later he was on his back, his chainmail thrown on the ground, his shirt half unbuttoned and Gwaine was straddling his hips.

His hand delved under Gwaine's shirt, ghosting against every scar Gwaine had on his skin. He pulled it over Gwaine's head, and began to ride up, pulling Gwaine closer and-

"Oh!"

The two froze and looked behind them. Merlin was standing at the door, with a slightly confused but mostly devious look on his face. 

"So you two _do _know each other."

Gwaine exhaled, flopping down on Lancelot's chest in embarrassment as Lancelot held a pillow up threateningly towards the warlock.

"Merlin...!" he warned.

"Don't mind me, I'll come back later after you two've finished."

"_MERLIN!_" Lancelot yelled and threw the pillow at the closing door as Merlin laughed and left.

"Well..." Gwaine looked up, his momentary embarrassment forgotten,

"Saves us having to tell him."

"I can't believe you!" Lancelot grumbled without any heat. Gwaine sat back up, fingers brushing along Lancelot's chest. The man underneath him perked up a little at his touch.

"Let's just do what he said and then....deal with it later. No?"

Gwaine didn't get a verbal answer but, he wasn't complaining about the one he got instead. 


End file.
